Blue World Employment Situation Report Analysis
Release Date: Usually on the first Friday of the month
Release Site: www.bls.gov
Market Impact: Usually Very High
Management Value: Critical
Date: Friday, January 05, 2018
Brain Surgery is not Rocket Science to a Brain Surgeon©
And with that, the 2017 employment data is in the books! How was it? As usual, it depends on which “experts” we’re listening to. If political…which side? If cubical denizen economists…which side? If media…which side? If financial industry…which side? And if Krugman…well, Paul, ahhhhhhhh, Paul!
But if you’re listening to Blue World, who couldn’t care less about spinning the results, and you’re strictly focused on how the labor picture reconciles with what you see from the level of your real business that employs real people every day and want to make strategic decisions based on unbiased data analysis, then “How was it?” doesn’t depend on anything other than “How it was!” So, all that said, how was it? A very solid “mixed”…but leaning forward. Let’s dig into it.
We won’t spend a lot of time on December 2017 because it fits well with the rest of the year. We’ll just call it mixed, like all of 2017, and point out the positives are the Labor Force and total Employed rose, while total Unemployed fell. The Diffusion Indices for the total Private Sector as well as Manufacturing remained comfortably in the expansion range well above 60. On the down side, the Participation Rate remains below 63%, and the Not in Labor Force totals, while showing some sign of flattening earlier in the year, continue to creep upward. That is probably the biggest disappointment of 2017.
To the extent the Employment Situation report is both forward and lagging, there is value in comparison. We always say, “One report unto itself is meaningless. It is the trend that matters.” With that in mind, the table above compares selected key data sets we use to analyze the reports month in and month out. Included are 2015, 2016, 2017, and the first and second six months of 2017. Some of the data is significantly improved and headed the right direction, while some is not as exciting, but we will say if the positives keep moving in their current trajectories they will pull the others along. We were just hoping to see that phenomenon develop during 2017.
We did not get the Blue World Economic Index® posted this month, but we can tell you it advanced further into positive territory, ending at .11. The index continued to climb all year and averaged a -.06 for 2017 vs -.11 and -.37 for 2015 and 2016, respectively so there is NO question the economy is moving. The biggest problem we see for 2018 is a Fed that seems hell-bent on raising rates in the absence of any consistent inflationary pressure. We’ll be watching that closely in the coming year and, of course, let’s keep close eye on the portfolios as the markets continue to ignore past record highs in favor of new ones. If you want some ideas on safety nets, give us a shout.
Have a wonderful and profitable 2018 and we’ll see you back here at the end of January.
Thanks for reading, and please stay tuned…
Release Site: www.bls.gov
Every effort is made to ensure accuracy of data transcription but accuracy cannot be guaranteed. The official release site should be cross referenced. The analysis represents the opinion of Blue World Asset Managers, LTD. who does not warrant or guarantee predictions based on its analysis.